The Middle of Nowhere

Most of the time, when election season rolls around there is a palpable increase in the level of tension in any conversation that moves beyond the latest sporting event. These days it seems that election season has stretched itself out to enfold not only the year of the big vote, but all years in between. As such we are all faced with dealing with a near-constant level of rancor in what would otherwise be fairly placid conversations. It seems that “my team is always right and your team is always wrong” has become the mantra of every other soul around. Ironically, each ideological camp accuses the other of being the most egregious practitioners of this universally hated art.

Many Christians, upon seeing the degradations born of extreme partisanship, have come to long for a way out of this morass. They ask whether we can move beyond the “us vs. them” polarities of American political life by advocating a “Third Way.” After all, in the Early Church many Christians proudly declared that they were a “Third Race” that was neither Greek nor Jewish and therefore independent of the biases of either. At this point there is no large move to create a Christian political party of the sort that CS Lewis beautifully derides (in God in the Dock, if memory serves), but there are many who, rather than swearing allegiance to either donkeys or elephants, have decided to term themselves “moderates.”

In many ways this is a highly laudable reaction. For the reasons mentioned above and many other unmentioned and unmentionable examples of human indignity, to be repulsed by the disdain incarnated in Left vs. Right polemics is the mark of extreme sanity. That being said there are also some reasons why joining the Moderate Party is less constructive than its stump speeches would have you believe.

The first problem is somewhat subjective. That is, its problematic nature rests entirely on the behavior and attitudes of the person claiming moderation and is not inherent “centrism” itself. One of the obnoxious things about people who go to non- or inter-denominational churches is the way they vaunt the superiority of their churches for not feeling superior in the way denomination rooted churches do. In the same way there are “moderates” out there who may have come to their anti-partisanship affiliation from genuine disgust at the elitism of the party who now practice the same elitism one step lower. Rather than proclaim the excellence of holding this or that position they now dwell in a bed of self-satisfaction called “open-mindedness.” However, just as a single car may be driven recklessly or with great skill, so too snobbery is a human quality quite independent of a particular faction.

The second problem rests in the nebulous nature of moderation. It is not the presence of an offensive article of faith that is in some way bothersome, but rather it is the absence of any defining characteristic at all. Being a moderate tells the world something about what you don’t like. You don’t like spite and reductionistic formulations. But what does a moderate like? What do they believe?

Let’s say, for simplicity’s sake, that there are two views of two positions to consider. If I have the conservative view of gun-control and abortion, then I’m a conservative. If I have the liberal views on the same two issues, I’m a liberal. Fair enough, but what does the moderate believe? If I have the liberal views on gun-control and the conservative views on abortion, but you have those ideals flip-flopped, are we both moderates even though we don’t agree on a single thing?

You might be thinking to yourself that this is a far too simplistic rendering of highly complex issues. I couldn’t agree more, but adding in more issues makes “moderation” even less distinct than dealing with only the two. Adding ten or twenty positions to the hypothetical questionnaire would hardly clear things up.

I certainly applaud the motives of those who have sought to enter the political fray in a fashion that brings honor and not grime to the name of Christ in the world. We certainly must maintain – both to ourselves and to the world – that our final loyalty belongs to another land let alone to a simple political party. However, I suggest that the way forward on such a quest lies not in trying to find the middle ground between two factions but by expressing our political opinions strongly yet respectfully. It will say far more to the watching world to see two Christians arguing for their positions with dignity and honor than it will by offering either the hypocritical snobbery of the first problem nor the ephemeral identity of the second.

by Timothy Padgett